U.S. Energy Department Defends Nuclear-Waste Fee to Court

Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Energy Department defended
its assessment of the $750 million it collects annually from the
nuclear-energy industry for waste disposal even as plans for a
permanent repository remain uncertain.

“Neither insufficient nor excess revenues are being
collected in order to recover the costs incurred by the federal
government,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in his annual
assessment of the fee, dated Jan. 16.

The agency today submitted the assessment to the U.S. Court
of Appeals in Washington, which on June 1 said the agency’s 2010
determination justifying the fee was “legally defective.” It
directed the department to re-evaluate whether it collects too
little or too much revenue from utilities to dispose of nuclear
waste.

“The Energy Department has conducted a rigorous review of
the adequacy of the Nuclear Waste Fund fee, as directed by the
D.C. Circuit, and has determined not to propose an adjustment to
the fee at this time,” agency spokeswoman Niketa Kumar said in
an e-mailed statement.

The Nuclear Energy Institute, a Washington-based industry
group whose members include Exelon Corp. of Chicago and
Southern Co. of Atlanta, has protested having to pay the fee
without a disposal site being made available.

President Barack Obama’s administration in 2010 ended
funding for Yucca Mountain, a proposed repository about 100
miles (161 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas, leaving plans for
a permanent disposal site uncertain.

Interim Storage

The Energy Department said its endorsement of a plan to
develop interim storage facilities before a permanent geologic
repository is found -- as recommended by a commission on waste
Obama set up after pulling the plug on Yucca -- shows the U.S.
is committed to taking the waste from utilities. That justifies
the continuation of the fee, according to the department.

The waste fee is tied to the department’s obligation to
take and dispose of nuclear waste, “not the Yucca Mountain
project,” the department said in the filing.

President Barack Obama’s administration will work with
Congress to implement a strategy for nuclear-waste storage, the
agency said in its report.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility
Commissioners, which opposes collection of the fee, said it is
still reviewing the department’s filing with the court.

“At first blush, we find it difficult to understand how
the department can justify charging nuclear utilities and their
consumers for a program they effectively concede does not
exist,” Rob Thormeyer, a spokesman for the Washington-based
industry group, said in an e-mailed statement.

The case is National Association of Regulatory Utility
Commissioners v. U.S. Department of Energy, 11-1066, U.S. Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia (Washington).